1-2 and they say we are not first responders??€¦ · con ed workers confronted gunman after he...
TRANSCRIPT
The RecordLOCAL 1-2
Con Ed Workers confronted gunman after he shot cops
By Larry Celona and Rebecca Harshbarger
A pair of utility workers who witnessed Saturday’s murder of two Brooklyn cops helped police track down the gunman.
“They are heroes,” said John Melia of Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers Union of America.
The Con Ed workers were stopped at a red light while driving through Bedford-Stuyvesant on their way to an underground electri-
cal fire when they witnessed the double killing, sources said.
One of the workers called 911 and the other flagged down a patrol car, which started following shooter Ismaaiyl Brinsley.
The two also followed Brinsley in their red truck as he walked on holding his silver Taurus automatic — and even tried to confront
him on the street, the sources said.
“You want some of this?” the shooter snarled, leveling the gun at them, the sources told The Post.
The workers backed off, but made sure the cops knew Brinsley had ducked into a nearby G-train subway station, sources said.
“That’s how the cops knew he was in there,” a source said.
“It’s above and beyond the call of an average citizen,” Melia added.
AND THEY SAY WE ARE NOT
FIRST RESPONDERS??
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The RecordUtility Workers Union of America,
AFL-CIO, Local 1-2
James Slevin
President
James Shillitto
Vice President
John Capra
Secretary-Treasurer
Senior Business AgentsAnthony Pedagna
Robert Stahl
Lisa Vella
Business AgentsBruce Farina
Emilio Frederick
Vincent Kyne
John (Scotty) MacNeill
Richard McNally
Joseph Mussillo
William Smith
Darryl Taylor
Jean Washington
Financial ObserversSheryl Bradley-Coleman
Michael Crispino
Michael McCann
Executive Board Chairman - Donald Weidmann
Secretary - Christopher Katzmann
James Bambina Thomas Martin
Paul Caminiti Arcangelo Minetti
Joseph Caradonna Norman Russell
Vito Carbonara Raymond Sherwood
William Connolly James Spry
Dorothy Curry John Stadtmuller
Robert DeMascio Rocco Talarico
Craig Dickson Justo Vega
Larry Dwyer Richard Velocci
Robert Griffin Marc Vingelli
Ricardo Irizarry Frank Vivola
Linda Lesnewski Robert Vuono
Milagros Valentin-Grantham
EditorJames Slevin
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TTHHEE RREECCOORRDD
LLOOCCAALL 11--22 Vol. LXI, No. 536
FEBRUARY 2015
Down On The Picket Line A song by Sarah Ogan Gunning©1932
Come on, friends, an' let's go down,Let's go down, let's go down,
Come on, friends, an' let's go down,Down on the picket line.
As we went down on the picket lineTo keep the scabs out of the mine,
Who's goin' to win the strike,Come on an' we'll show you the way.
We went out one mornin' before daylight,An' I was sure we'd have a fight,
But the scabs was cowardly ran away,We went back the very next day.
Come on, friends, an' let's go down,Let's go down, let's go down,
Come on, friends, an' let's go down,Down on the picket line.
As we went down on the picket lineTo keep the scabs out of the mine,
Who's goin' to win the fight,Come on an' we'll show you the way.
We all went out on the railroad trackTo meet them scabs an' turn 'em back.
We win that strike, I'm glad to say,Come on an' we'll show you the way.
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Brothers and Sisters as
we prepare for the first
Membership meeting in 2015, I
am proud to tell you that Local
1-2 posted a significant victory
for Labor as 2014 came to a
close.
In December, Gov.
Andrew Cuomo signed into law
a statute requiring that the
Public Service Commission
conduct public hearings before
any utility can close, or move
out of state, a customer call
center.
Local 1-2 lobbied very
hard to see this measure
become law. It was introduced
by Staten Island State Sen.
Diane Savino, who chairs the
Senate Labor Committee, after
it was brought to her attention
that state-regulated, monopo-
listic utilities like Con Edison
can just close or up and move
customer call centers without
the public’s knowledge or
input.
I don’t have to tell you
that the Bosses would love to
do this, We saw this lack of
oversight as a direct threat to
our Brothers and Sisters who
work in customer call centers
for Con Ed, where they bear
the brunt of complaints caused
mostly by Con Ed’s Boss-
heavy culture, where often the
Boss on the left doesn’t know
what the Boss on the right is
doing.
Speaking of which, as
the clock ran out on 2014, I
called upon the Senior VPs for
both Gas Operations and
Electric Operations to improve
their internal channels of com-
munication. Because-as if you
didn’t know-they have done
very little on this front despite
the ongoing investigation into
last year’s East Harlem gas
explosion which claimed 8
lives.
For the safety of our
Brothers and Sisters on the
street, I have demanded that
Gas Ops inform Electric Ops of
any gas leak of any level when
Electric Ops Troubleshooters
are called to a scene. This lack
of communication between two
main divisions of New York
City’s largest utility company
put its employees in danger.
Con Ed’s assurances to
our elected officials and the
public aside, we know the
Bosses play fast and loose
with our lives and the public’s.
Whatever happened to “Safety
First”?
Finally, let us pause and
reflect in thanks to two of our
Con Ed Brothers who went
above and beyond the call of
any citizens’ duty when two
NYPD officers were assassi-
nated in Brooklyn in
December. They gave the big
lie to the idea that Utility
Workers are not First
Responders in every sense.
Without regard to their own
safety, these Brothers jumped
out of their vehicle and imme-
diately involved themselves as
the shooter fled to a nearby
subway platform and commit-
ted suicide. Their brave actions
assisted the NYPD in swiftly
finding the assassin.
Because of these hero-
ics, Local 1-2 was inundated
by the media to talk to these
Brothers, who wished to
remain anonymous. We
respected their wishes, as did
Con Ed. But it is with profound
thanks that we honor their
courage.
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At our November 2014
Membership Meeting,
President Slevin mentioned the
case of a Member who was
terminated because of pictures
and comments he made on
Social Media.
And then in December
two of our Brothers became
the focus of intense media
interest when they tried to help
in the aftermath of the assassi-
nation of two police officers.
They wanted no part of that
media frenzy and we respect
their right to privacy.
What each of these
cases has to do with the other
is that the Bosses were watch-
ing. They watch us on the job
and off the job.
In the matter of the
Brother who posted pictures
and comments on a personal
Social Media account, part of
the problem was that he identi-
fied himself, his company and
his job title. While I will not go
into what was said, he was ter-
minated because of a com-
plaint by a citizen who was not
even a Con Edison customer.
President Slevin vowed
to get that Brother his job
back. And he did. Free speech
prevailed, if not good judg-
ment, by the Company or the
Member. The point is to be
VERY CAREFUL when posting
about your employer on Social
Media even if it is on a person-
al account.
State and federal courts
have been inconsistent in
recent years about what cross-
es the line in Social Media
where an employer can use it
as a basis for firing. There are
exceptions to free speech and
political discourse when
defamation, personal attacks
or company reputation and
property are involved.
So, if you must post be
aware of what you are putting
in public before you hit the
“enter” key. It is there forever
and it can haunt you for the
rest of your career.
Yet Social Media has an
abundance of plusses that can
help build our Membership,
communicate on a personal
basis with our Members and
instantly disburse information
that affects one or all of our
employers and our Members.
To that end, we invite all
of you to provide us with your
personal email address so that
we can email you The Record.
We invite all of our Brothers
and Sisters to sign up for the
877-877 blast phone text serv-
ice. Dial 877-877, write Local
1-2, hit send and you’re in
(currently about half the
Membership has signed on).
We will never disclose this
information to anyone. Finally,
we are looking to the future
where we can conduct elec-
tions electronically and online.
Remember Brothers
and Sisters, President Slevin
frequently reminds us: Apathy
is Lethal and the Boss is Not
Your Friend, never has been,
never will be.
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LOCAL 1-2 AND A ROSARY HILL CHRISTMAS
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LOCAL 1-2, LOCAL 601, GET
OUT THE VOTE IN NJ
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KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
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KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
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HEARING LOSS INFORMATION
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HEARING LOSS INFORMATION
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SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY
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SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY
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Local 1-2 lost one of its great Brothers with the sudden death of
John Scully while kayaking on Eastchester Bay in the Bronx.
“There was no better Trade Unionist than Scully,” said retired
Local 1-2 President Harry J. Farrell, speaking of his friend and for-
mer colleague. “He helped hundreds and hundreds of people over
the years who had been lost to addiction. He left us doing what he
loved, being on the water.”
Scully was a dedicated substance abuse counselor for Con
Edison who helped make its Employee Assistance Program a model
to assist his Brothers and Sisters who suffered from addiction dis-
eases.
He was also active in Labor Assistance Professionals, a
national peer-to-peer program for Union workers suffering drug and
alcohol and mental health issues. LAP’s goal is for Brother and
Sister Union substance abuse professionals to work directly with
Union men and women with those illnesses instead of having man-
agement calling all the shots. John Scully helped get scores of
Local 1-2 members into treatment and then counseled them as they
stayed away from alcohol and/or drugs so that they could lead
happy, productive lives.
R.I.P. Brother Scully.
NEW RETIREES
THANKYOU FOR YOUR SERVICE
IN MEMORIAM
Joseph Mangano
40 Years of Service
Jan Sieniawski
10 Years of Service
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Jobs are coming back, but pay isn't.
The median wage is still below where it was
before the Great Recession. Last month, aver-
age pay actually fell.
What's going on? It used to be that as unem-
ployment dropped, employers had to pay more
to attract or keep the workers they needed.
That's what happened when I was labor secre-
tary in the late 1990s.
It still could happen - but the unemployment
rate would have to sink far lower than it is
today, probably below 4 percent.
Yet there's reason to believe the link between
falling unemployment and rising wages has
been severed.
For one thing, it's easier than ever for
American employers to get the workers they
need at low cost by outsourcing jobs abroad
rather than hiking wages at home. Outsourcing
can now be done at the click of a computer
keyboard.
Besides, many workers in developing nations
now have access to both the education and
the advanced technologies to be as productive
as American workers. So CEOs ask, why pay
more?
Meanwhile here at home, a whole new
generation of smart technologies is taking over
jobs that used to be done only by people.
Rather than pay higher wages, it's cheaper for
employers to install more robots.
Not even professional work is safe. The
combination of advanced sensors, voice
recognition, artificial intelligence, big data, text-
mining, and pattern-recognition algorithms is
even generating smart robots capable of quick-
ly learning human actions.
In addition, millions of Americans who
dropped out of the labor market in the Great
Recession are still jobless. They're not even
counted as unemployment because they've
stopped looking for work.
But they haven't disappeared entirely.
Employers know they can fill whatever job
openings emerge with this "reserve army" of
the hidden unemployed - again, without raising
wages.
Add to this that today's workers are less
economically secure than workers have been
since World War II. Nearly one out of every
five is in a part-time job.
Insecure workers don't demand higher
wages when unemployment drops. They're
grateful simply to have a job.
To make things worse, a majority of
Americans have no savings to draw upon if
they lose their job. Two-thirds of all workers
are living paycheck to paycheck. They won't
risk losing a job by asking for higher pay.
Insecurity is now baked into every
aspect of the employment relationship.
Workers can be fired for any reason, or no
reason. And benefits are disappearing. The
portion of workers with any pension connected
to their job has fallen from over half in 1979 to
under 35 percent in today.
Workers used to be represented by
trade unions that utilized tight labor markets to
bargain for higher pay. In the 1950s, more than
a third of all private-sector workers belonged to
a union. Today, though, fewer than 7 percent
of private-sector workers are unionized.
None of these changes has been accidental.
The growing use of outsourcing abroad and of
labor-replacing technologies, the large reserve
of hidden unemployed, the mounting economic
insecurities, and the demise of labor unions
have been actively pursued by corporations
and encouraged by Wall Street. Payrolls are
the single biggest cost of business. Lower pay-
rolls mean higher profits.
The results have been touted as "efficient"
because, at least in theory , they've allowed
workers to (con’t...)
WHY WAGES WONT RISEBy Robert Reich (Reprinted from the Huffington Post Blog)
17
be shifted to "higher and better uses." But
most haven't been shifted. Instead, they've
been shafted.
The human costs of this "efficiency"
have been substantial. Ordinary workers have
lost jobs and wages, and many communities
have been abandoned.
Nor have the efficiency benefits been widely
shared. As corporations have steadily weak-
ened their workers' bargaining power, the link
between productivity and workers' income has
been severed.
Since 1979, the nation's productivity has risen
65 percent, but workers' median compensation
has increased by just 8 percent. Almost all the
gains from growth have gone to the top.
This is not a winning corporate strategy over
the long term because higher returns ultimate-
ly depend on more sales, which requires a
large and growing middle class with enough
purchasing power to buy what can be pro-
duced.
But from the limited viewpoint of the CEO of a
single large firm, or of an investment banker or
fund manager on Wall Street, it's worked out
just fine - so far.
Low unemployment won't lead to higher pay
for most Americans because the key strategy
of the nation's large corporations and financial
sector has been to prevent wages from rising.
And, if you hadn't noticed, the big corporations
and Wall Street are calling the shots.
WHY WAGES WONT RISE (cont...)
“The labor movement was theprincipal force that trans-
formed misery and despairinto hope and progress.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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NOVEMBER MEMBERSHIP MEETING
LOCAL 1-2UTILITY WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA, A.F.L.- C.I.O.
MEMBERSHIP MEETINGPLACE: THE HIGH SCHOOL OF FASHION INDUSTRIES
225 WEST 24TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY(BETWEEN 7TH & 8TH AVENUE)
DATE: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015TIME: 6:15 P.M.
ADMISSION ONLY TO MEMBERS IN GOOD STANDINGBY UNION CARD OR COMPANY I.D. CARD
Fraternally,
John CapraSecretary-Treasurer
IT’S IMPORTANT
UTILITY WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA
Local 1-2, Affiliated with AFL-CIO5 West 37th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10018
DATED MATERIAL - DELIVER IMMEDIATELY
NON-PROFIT ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
NEW YORK, N.Y.
PERMIT NO. 1615
UNIONUNIONMEETINGMEETING